In Session » Diane Neighborshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics
Tennessee PoliticsMon, 07 Apr 2014 14:51:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6I’ll see your vice mayor and raise you a former mayorhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2013/ill-see-your-vice-mayor-and-raise-you-a-former-mayor/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2013/ill-see-your-vice-mayor-and-raise-you-a-former-mayor/#commentsTue, 10 Sep 2013 20:41:59 +0000Michael Casshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=20209Not to be outdone by Jeff Yarbro’s plan to have Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors co-host a Senate District 21 campaign fund-raiser, rival candidate Jason Holleman announced today that he’ll do Yarbro one better, though also once removed from elected officialdom.

Former Mayor Bill Purcell “will open up his East Nashville home” on Oct. 8 for a Holleman fund-raiser, Holleman’s campaign announced this afternoon, about three hours after Yarbro’s announcement.

Holleman, a Metro councilman, also plans fund-raisers in the Richland-West End neighborhood on Wednesday and in Belmont-Hillsboro on Oct. 17. Former Councilman Keith Durbin, who is now the city’s chief information officer and part of Mayor Karl Dean’s administration, will co-host the latter event.

]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2013/ill-see-your-vice-mayor-and-raise-you-a-former-mayor/feed/0Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors heads up host list for Jeff Yarbro fund-raiserhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2013/vice-mayor-diane-neighbors-heads-up-host-list-for-jeff-yarbro-fund-raiser/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2013/vice-mayor-diane-neighbors-heads-up-host-list-for-jeff-yarbro-fund-raiser/#commentsTue, 10 Sep 2013 16:22:25 +0000Michael Casshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=20206It won’t come as a shock to Metro insiders, but Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors appears to be backing a different horse in the Tennessee Senate District 21 race than the horse who serves on the Metro Council with her.

Neighbors’ name is the first on a long list of hosts for a fund-raiser that attorney Jeff Yarbro is holding in East Nashville next week. Yarbro is running against Councilman Jason Holleman, also an attorney, while Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action, is considering getting in the race as well.

Neighbors presides over the Metro Council. Council members Anthony Davis, Scott Davis, Frank Harrison, Lonnell Matthews and Peter Westerholm are also on the host list. Davis, Davis and Westerholm represent various parts of East Nashville.

Holleman, who represents Sylvan Park, has rubbed some movers and shakers the wrong way by opposing Mayor Karl Dean’s proposals for a new convention center (which the council approved) and fairgrounds redevelopment (which it rejected). But Holleman and his backers have said over the years that he votes for Dean’s agenda much more often than not.

Steine, who also chaired the committee in 2009-10 and 1996-97, will guide the council’s process as it works to adopt a budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, after Mayor Karl Dean submits his recommendations.

Steine has generally been supportive of Dean’s agenda over the past six years.

Neighbors is expected to announce the other committee members in the next few weeks.

Garrett, who served on the council from 1991 to 1999 and returned in 2007 – all in an at-large seat – said his institutional memory would help to guide a council that will be full of new faces after Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, all five at-large members and numerous district members are forced out by term limits.

“I might have a little bit to add to the different reasons why mayors did this, why the council did that, why we’ve been here, why we’d want to go here again, this has already been tried, that sort of thing,” said Garrett, a fifth-generation undertaker who lives in Goodlettsville.

The vice mayor serves as president of the council and is first in the line of succession if the mayor’s office is vacated.

Garrett also ran for vice mayor in 1999, losing in a runoff to Ronnie Steine, who also is back on the council now in an at-large seat. When Garrett came back in 2007, he was the only at-large member elected without having to go to a runoff. He said he’ll be ready for the rigors of yet another countywide campaign.

“Let me assure you, it’s a long way from one end of Antioch to Joelton,” he said. “It can wear your car out.”

Garrett said he’ll probably make a final decision before the 2014 Davidson County elections, when he’ll be helping the re-election campaign of his brother-in-law, General Sessions Judge John Aaron Holt.

When the Metro Council started discussing a proposed tax break for hospital company HCA Inc. Tuesday night, Councilwoman Jacobia Dowell, who works for the company, said she would have to abstain from the vote.

Three minutes later, however, the first-term councilwoman from Antioch rose to speak in support of the legislation:

Neighbors said she’s been out of town since Friday, the day after Banks’ arrest, and hasn’t spoken to him yet. She said she didn’t know if Banks would attend Tuesday night’s council meeting.

“We’ll just see how this week unfolds,” Neighbors said.

Asked if she was concerned to see a council member getting into legal trouble, the vice mayor responded, “It is disturbing. But I’m not going to pass judgment. I’m going to wait and talk to Brady.”

Neighbors has not been afraid to call out council members before, though this kind of situation is unprecedented during her four-plus years in the vice mayor’s chair.

After former councilman Jamie Hollin repeatedly used profanity in a tirade against two other council members following a meeting last July, Neighbors said Hollin’s behavior was “inappropriate.” She did not take any disciplinary action against him, however, noting, “There is nothing (regarding the punishment of council members) in our rules.”

Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors announced the appointment of McGuire, 30, and other committee chairs and members in a news release this evening.

McGuire was recently elected to his second four-year term representing Green Hills. He works in “acquisitions and asset management,” according to his council web page.

Dean managed to get through his first term without proposing a tax increase. The mayor said each year that he couldn’t ask families struggling through the economic downturn to pay more, so the government routinely made cuts across most departments while generally protecting Dean’s priorities of public education and public safety. The administration got through the past two budgets by refinancing some of Metro’s debt, which saved $141 million for the short term but will cost $188 million in the long run.

Some observers think it’s going to be impossible to keep the city’s $1.5 billion budget humming without asking citizens to pony up more money. So McGuire could have a very interesting year.

Could the Tennessee State Fairgrounds flea market and expo center be relocated without taking them to a suburban mall a dozen miles away from downtown? After getting an email from a constituent, Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors has been thinking about an interesting potential home for those activities if Mayor Karl Dean manages to redevelop the fairgrounds.

When and if the Nashville Sounds get a new stadium, Greer Stadium could be renovated to accommodate the expo center and flea market, Neighbors said. Greer is on Chestnut Street south of downtown, less than two miles from the fairgrounds.

“It could potentially be a vacant piece of property,” the vice mayor said. “It’s an interesting thing to think about.”

The Sounds have wanted for years to get out of Greer and into a new ballpark. A deal put together by former Mayor Bill Purcell’s administration fell through as the Sounds and a development partner squabbled in 2007, and the AAA baseball team continued to play at Greer, which is now 32 years old.

Dean has said the city will “need to do something about baseball” if he’s elected to a second term next August.

Neighbors said Municipal Auditorium is another possibility for some of the expo shows now held at the fairgrounds, based on the available parking nearby, though some show organizers have said that’s not a good option for them.

“Everybody has ideas about if we had an Amazon waiting in the wings and said we have to have the fairground property, then where would we move things?” Neighbors said, referring to talks between Amazon.com and Hamilton and Bradley counties, where the giant online retailer might put two distribution centers. “I think there’s a lot of interesting ideas floating around out there.”

She said she had not talked to Dean or his aides about the ideas yet.

“These were all just what-if conversations. … I’m sure we’ll know more about all of these things come 2011.”

Dean proposed moving the flea market and expo center to Hickory Hollow Mall in Antioch but retreated after the idea took a beating at a surprise public hearing held by the Metro Council four weeks ago. He then said the city needs to think about whether it “should be in the flea market business.”

Neighbors appointed 13 of the 40 council members to chairmanships, including eight men and five women. Barry is an at-large council member, meaning she represents the entire county.

Barry, a progressive/liberal/lefty, has a good relationship with Mayor Karl Dean’s office and supported Dean’s convention center construction plan. The ambitious Barry upset some other council progressives with her vote – on the other hand, she opposed the Nashville Predators’ new lease in 2008 – and she’s annoyed conservatives at times with her successful initiatives to pass nondiscrimination and living wage ordinances. But she’s affable, doesn’t seem to take herself too seriously and clearly, in Neighbors’ eyes, can bring together the various council groups in what promises to be another tough budget year.

Along with the budget, the council will have to tackle a convention center hotel financing proposal, flood recovery issues, perhaps a baseball stadium construction plan and maybe changes to funding for indigent health care at Nashville General Hospital at Meharry.

]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/megan-barry-to-chair-metro-council-budget-committee/feed/1Metro Council will try public hearings again on June 8http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/metro-council-will-try-public-hearings-again-on-june-8/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/metro-council-will-try-public-hearings-again-on-june-8/#commentsWed, 05 May 2010 19:15:33 +0000Michael Casshttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=10415The Metro Council has rescheduled the meeting it had planned to hold on Tuesday, May 4, for June 8 at 6 p.m., Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors announced today.

The meeting’s agenda consists of public hearings and preliminary votes on 12 zoning items. Tuesday’s meeting was canceled due to the impact of flooding on the Metro Courthouse.